While There is Light, There is Hope
by DarkAngel1227
Summary: Lumen realized that her dark passenger didn't leave it was only resting. Now she was making her way down the coast back to the man that had given her, her life back.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

While There is Light, There is Hope

Summary: Lumen realized that her dark passenger didn't leave it was only resting. Now she was making her way down the coast back to the man that had given her, her life back.

* * *

Ch 1

The polyethylene sheeting encased the room tightly like a present waiting to be opened. Not a single surface left untouched by its wrappings. Clean, neat, nothing will touch the ground. The kill room.

The man named Cory James Roth lay on the dresser like a mummy in its tomb. He looked around with fear in his eyes, the same fear all of his victims felt when he had them tied down. Above him hung the names of the girls he killed, each one spins around from the slight breeze of the A/C. Both sides have the names written on them.

His eyes have been duck taped open so he can't close them and they fill with tears from the strain. His head thrashed around wildly. It's always different when you're the one that can't escape.

Cory James Roth brutalized the girls after he raped them. They are found with their throats slit and the word whore carved into their stomachs, then their ring finger was cut off and stuffed in their mouths. He said he killed them because of the way they dressed. The girls were always in their mid to late twenties, single and taken from bar or night clubs. He said they didn't deserve to live because no man would take a dirty woman for a wife.

He's confused and disoriented from the M99. He didn't know what hit him and then he woke up on the table. Now he's waiting, waiting for it to be over, waiting for it to end, waiting for death. When it's you, you beg for it, you pray for it. They make you wait, they like to draw it out, it gets them off. But she doesn't wait; she plunged the knife deep inside his chest and only waited for the lights to go out of his eyes.

The water droplets touch her skin cooling it as the black bag carrying Cory James Roth sank below the surface of the Atlantic. Lumen Ann Pierce sits on the side of her boat and enjoyed the warm night breeze. She looked through the darkness to see the light from the pier in Virginia Beach, VA.

She did everything he taught her, kept the room clean, left nothing behind. She followed the code, his code. She missed him, she missed him being there with her, watching her, smiling when they were done, then peeling each other's clothes off and falling into bed. She knew how fucked up that sounded and fucked up she was. Maybe she was always fucked up but now she felt like she was free from the cage her life had been before she met him.

He said he'd carry her darkness but he didn't need too, she still had hers and she felt at home in the dark, safe, alive.

* * *

Dexter Morgan threw the last garbage bag into the ocean and stared out at the horizon. It had been six months since she left, six months since he had to kill on his own. He found it funny how used to having a partner he had gotten. A partner that was different than the others. A partner that followed the code, a partner that trusted him and most of all he trusted, a partner that that made him feel.

He missed her, he missed watching her grip the knife like it was her lifeline, the thing that made her whole. He missed watching her chest rise and fall from the ecstasy after the kill and most of all he missed her smile that he knew was only meant for him.

No other person had known him the way she did, she knew everything and she didn't run, she wasn't afraid and she wasn't crazy. She wanted to learn and for the first time in his fucked up life he wanted to teach.

He wondered what she was doing now, was she living her life? Was she happy? He wanted her stay but he knew why she had to go, but even then she still understood his own need and no one else had. She still saw him as the man not the monster. She left him while still giving him something in return, something he would cherish forever, she had given him hope that he wasn't alone.

So wherever she was and whatever she was doing he hoped she living the life she wanted.

Tbc…


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

While There is Light, There is Hope

Summary: Lumen realized that her dark passenger didn't leave it was only resting. Now she was making her way down the coast back to the man that had given her, her life back.

A/N: This chapter is a prequel to the first chapter, it takes place two months after Lumen left Miami and Dexter.

* * *

Ch 2.

She went home after she left Miami, she stood outside and stared at her childhood home, it was an all brick storybook Tudor, four bedrooms, three baths and a three car garage. There was a foyer, a full basement, indoor pool, an outdoor patio, and a garden. It was a large and spacious house for a family of four with money.

Lumen looked up at the second story window behind it was the room she played in when she was a kid. Her brother's room was the next window to hers. If she looked further back she could see the garden where she was supposed to have married Owen. It all looked like someone else's life.

It only took a month before she had to leave, well less than that she spent most of that time planning on what she was going to do. She took a bus to Boston and purchased a boat, it was a beauty. It was a Crownline with a luxurious cabin, the dining table converted into a bed with filler cushions making it wide enough for two. The cabinets were a cherry wood finish; the rest of the galley had custom countertops, a stainless steel microwave, sink and refrigerator. The bathroom compartment had a shower, sink, vanity and a porcelain toilet with waste level indicator, shower sump pump, electric exhaust fan and a screened opening port light.

The top part had standard L-shape seating, flip-up bucket seats and rear aft bench that converted into a sunbed.

Being at sea calmed her, made her relax and think about what she had done. The girl she was before died at the hands of Boyd Fowler. Jordan Chase may have been right, she was transformed.

When she needed money she got jobs at restaurants near the dock which was when it happened. She was waiting for her last table to pay and leave and talking to the other waitresses. She was working at seaside diner in Plymouth, Massachusetts. She had her Masters degree in English Lit from Yale and her parents would hate that she was working for minimum wage but she actually liked it. When they were slow she had time to think about what she wanted do and when they were busy her mind was occupied by helping customers.

She was helping close up the restaurant, there were four of them. She, two other girls Gina and Debbie and a waiter named Gabe. She was helping him throw the garbage bags into the dumpster and maybe that familiarity triggered it too. They were walking back inside when she felt his hand on her ass.

"If you know what's good for you, you'll take your hand of my ass" She told him without turning around.

Gabe liked to think he was a player, he thought he was charming but most of the other girls thought he was creep. But so far he had been harmless (or so she thought) only making crude remarks so she let that go. But like most people that think their charming they continue to push the boundaries.

Debbie and Gina were cleaning the bathrooms when they entered the main dining area, so they were alone. She picked up a rag and started wiping down the tables, he came up behind her and but his arms around her waist.

"I know you like playing hard to get and it worked I'm hard" He whispered in her ear.

Lumen's eyebrows raised as her mind comprehended what he said and she turned around too fast for him to react. She flipped him onto the table and held her forearm against his throat. She locked her blue eyes onto his.

"I don't ever want to hear you say that to anyone" she said as her eyes bore into his. "You're going to apologize to me and to every other women working here, you are no longer allowed to make comments about our asses or our racks, or any other part of our bodies. You will be a complete gentleman, opening doors, offering to carry the heavier stuff, etc…" She told him. He smiled at first thinking she was responding to him then he started struggling, then he just stopped when he looked into her eyes. "Because you don't want to know what happen to you if you don't. Do you understand? Blink twice of yes" and he did, the fear evident on his face.

She let go of him and he scrambled away from her. Lumen took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She felt better than she had in months. Gabe appeared to not be as stupid as he looked; he stopped bothering the girls and was much nicer. However he wouldn't look her in the eyes anymore.

Something inside her snapped releasing the darkness that lay dormant for those past two months. The darkness that she thought had vanished. It was still there and she realized how selfish she was being. She had taken care of her tormenters but others were out there, other people were being hurt and she couldn't let that happen.

On the news a few days later they were warning parents about a rapist that went after high school aged girls. Two girls were found in dumpsters after they were raped they were beaten to death, the police believe it was done by the same man. The girls had gone missing as they walked home from school.

Lumen started researching what she could, without access to police files like Dexter had it was a little bit more difficult, but you'd be surprised what you could find on the internet.

She found information from another case in Brockton and another in Attleboro that matched the MO of the suspect. Like most serial killer he had a type, she was sure the cops figured that out as well. His name was Kenneth Wade he was forty years old, blonde hair and blue eyes. He was about 5'7" so shorter than average for a male and it made him look younger than his age. There were 335 people named Kenneth Wade in the US. But only two lived in Massachusetts and one was a government official.

The cops needed search warrants and plausible cause to go after him. She didn't need anything but a knife. She unzipped her lock picking case, she was surprised how easy stuff like this could be purchased online, and this twenty piece set cost her forty four bucks. It had fourteen assorted picks, six with stainless steel handles, a broken key extractor, and five tension tools, all packaged in a luggage quality zippered case that could fit in a shirt pocket. She opened the door to the house, the belly of the beast.

She had on her tight black gloves that he bought her, she wished she had the pocket knife she dropped it at Emily Birch's house when Jordan attacked her. She started with his closets, and then looked at the pictures on his walls he appeared to be an animal photographer, she found various high end cameras on his shelves, one was missing. Then she started going through the drawers. One was locked, the trophy drawer. She touched her grandmother's necklace that was once a trophy for Alex Tilden.

She took out the leather case again and opened it. Inside she found driver licenses about six of them. She lifted off a magazine about animals and found photographs, lots of them. He was stalking them first. Five of them matched the girls from the pictures she saw on the news and on the internet. The sixth one was a girl she's never seen before, girl that might still be alive. She flipped the picture over a name was on the back.

Another thing she lucked out on is, kids and their love of facebook which was used as a buffet for pedophiles. Teenagers loved putting their every last thought and location online for anyone to see and most put the name of the high school they attended. Rachel Mack was a fifteen year old freshman at Plymouth South High School.

The night she broke into Kenneth Wade's apartment she waited for him to come home to see what type of a car he drove. A red Ford Taurus. She slept in the rental car and followed him. He drove past the school and down an alleyway, and then drove back to the school, then back home.

The next day she followed him again, he parked his car a block away from the school that she found on the girls facebook page. He was doing it today and she was upset because she'd rather take him from his home but the cops were casing it now. So she had to do it this way.

She drove past the school and parked her car on the street next to the house that was for sale and doubled back to the school. He was still in his car; school would be let out in ten minutes.

The bell rang and the school emptied. He got out of his car pretending to be a parent waiting for his kid. When the girl and her friends started walking, he started following keeping a safe distance way not that it would matter much; they were too busy talking and giggling to pay him any attention.

Lumen was dressed in a tight blue tank top and black stretch pants; her hair was in a loose ponytail as she jogged by him without looking, she ran past the girls who also didn't pay attention to a jogger. She heard the girls as they separated and went to their own homes leaving Rachel by herself to walk down an empty ally.

She ran to her spot on the side of the garage and waited. She saw Rachel walk by with headphones in her ears while texting. Lumen kicked an empty beer can against the wall causing them both to stop and look back. Kenneth had to get out of her line of sight and ran right into Lumen and she injected him with the M99, he stared at her confused as his eyes glazed over and his body went limp.

She dragged him into the garage and tied him to the small shelving unit that was left in the garage.

When she woke him up his eyes darted around the room, wondering where he was and how he got here. His mind was solely focused on the teenage girl in front of him, like her he didn't pay attention to his surrounding and that is always the first mistake.

Lumen stepped out of the shadows so he could see her face. She had on her plastic apron and gloves.

"Who are you?" He asked not hiding his fear.

"My name doesn't matter" She replied as she walked over to a table and spread out her knifes. Again she was surprised how easy it was to purchase them; she stopped in Chinatown and paid in cash. The other knifes she picked up along the way also all paid in cash, she couldn't leave credit card traces. She also purchased disguises, she never used them with Dexter but she thought they might come in handy.

But for right now she picked a pair of scissors and walked over to him. His eyes darted back and forth, with the polyethylene sheeting wrapped tightly around him he could do nothing then shake. She looked him in the eyes reached over and grabbed his shirt. She slowly cut a 2x2 inch square in the middle. She took the square folded it up neatly and placed in her case and threw his shirt in a garbage bag.

"What are you going to do me?" He asked with a quiver in his voice.

"Did they ask you that question too, or did you not give them time too?" she replied. "That girl and others like her will be home safe with their parents and they will get to live their lives. But you…you're life stops here"

She didn't have a the variety of knives that Dexter had she only had a few her favorite was the Tai Pan Twin Edged dagger it was named after a type of serpent, it had a sturdy spear point which she was told by the man that sold it to her was wide and thick enough to resist breaking without compromising its ability to offer deep, effortless penetration. They were right, the knife slid through Kenneth's chest with ease.

When she was cleaning up Kenneth Wade's body, she dressed in a business casual beige suit with a skirt and put his garbage bags into card boxes and loaded them into her car. If anyone saw her they'd think a brunette realtor was just packing up the belongings to show the house. Then she put the garbage bags into suitcases and loaded them on her boat.

Kenneth Wade was her first since Jordan Chase. She didn't think she'd be able to do that again but once the door was opened she couldn't close it. She became obsessed with finding Kenneth and others like him.

She stood at the helm watching the bow slice through the water. She would find her way back to him, her teacher, her mentor her lover, but first there predators that needed to be hunted down.

* * *

Harrison sat on his lap, while he told him a bedtime story. "A young girl with golden hair was taking a stroll through the park, when suddenly three bears came out of the woods; they took her to their house and trapped her inside. Along came a bear hunter and with the blonde girl's help they took care of three bears so they could never hurt anyone again."

Dexter looked at his son who just smiled and said "Again"

Tbc…


End file.
